In telling you that I stayed up all night reading this, I feel obligated to add that I'm horribly jet-lagged from an overseas trip and so am on a nocturnal schedule anyway. Nevertheless, the sentiment holds. I don't see this as weaker than The Demon's Lexicon, as so many middle-child books are.

It took me a bit to get into it. The beginning still fails to interest me, as this book's told from Mae's perspective. I only vaguely remembered her from the first book, and nothing in the opening scene made her stand out. Nick, by far and away my favorite character, doesn't make an appearance until the second chapter. Once he's present, though, things start crackling.

It's difficult to describe the plot without spoilers, so I'll only say that, just as in The Demon's Lexicon, the heart of the story is the relationship between the brothers Nick and Alan. It's a relationship that moved me to tears. But I laughed at times, too; Nick's sarcastic lines of dialogue are priceless, and Rees Brennan captures that feeling of easy back-and-forth quipping among family members.

The obligatory note about Mae is that I ended up liking her quite a bit after all. She's somewhat of a punk while still very much a teenage girl, and yet despite this, charismatic in her own way. She's stubborn and fiercely protective and knows what she wants and shows a fair bit of initiative.

I'll be anxiously awaiting the third book, and hoping, of course, for lots more Nick and Alan.

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